


What I Can Give to You

by Princex_N



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Cooking, Crafts, Drabble, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Gift Giving, Knitting, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Team as Family, carpentry, dad friend Merle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-27 23:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8422618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princex_N/pseuds/Princex_N
Summary: Gifts aren't necessary for friendships, but they sure are great! Here's a fic about the things the boys make and give to each other. Magnus chops some wood. Merle picks back up an old hobby. Taako tries his best.





	1. Magnus

Magnus likes making things for the people he cares about. The decision to start making things for them is a relatively easy one, knowing that he's making something that they'll find useful is really good inspiration.

The first idea comes from once sharing a room with Merle. The dwarf's plants are varied and many, but also scattered haphazardly all over the room, and Magnus had noticed that Merle often overlooks plants that aren't in plain sight. Now that they've been given private rooms, Magnus doesn't actually know how the plants are situated anymore, but he doesn't think it's likely changed much. 

So Magnus sets to work; hunting down wood and supplies and designing the shelf in the ample free time that they have between missions, and it's not long before Magnus has a completed plant stand, sturdy and made from Ash. 

Merle responds to the gift with a gruff sort of excitement, cracking jokes excessively, but also practically vibrating with the decisions of what will go where once he gets it to his room. 

Taako whines about not having been given anything, and Magnus starts to work on the plans he'd drawn up weeks ago. 

For Taako, someone who is flashy and owns a lot of small pieces of jewelry that he's near constantly losing in his own pockets or room, Magnus makes a Mahogany jewelry box. 

The sides have deep cracks in them that Magnus fills with a photo-luminescent resin in order to make it as flashy as possible while still being relatively simple and capable of sustaining some damage. The design on the lid is what takes the longest, an intricate cluster of flowers carved into the wood that takes Magnus several days to finish. 

And when he does finish, Taako goes oddly quiet when presented with the finished piece, despite all of the complaints he'd made about not having gotten one earlier. And then almost immediately, he's emptying his pockets and poking around the brim of his hat right in the middle of the hallway, pulling out all of his jewelry and putting it away. 

He even goes so far as to take off the pieces he's wearing in order to place them into their respective compartments, and when he's done, everything is there with room to spare, neat and easy to find. (Magnus doesn't doubt that the organization system will fall apart in a few days, but they're there for the few times Taako will actually sit down and organize his messes. Maybe one day, it'll stick.)

Merle brings up his shelf at every available opportunity, talking about it with an oddly paternal pride in his voice, and Taako keeps the jewelry box in one of his pockets (even though Magnus had technically made it for him to keep in his room) and flaunts it to anybody who will stand still long enough to pay attention, and Magnus feels a settled sort of happiness he hasn't felt in a while now, and goes back to designing. 


	2. Merle

For Merle, it's all more like a side effect.

He's bored as hell one day -nothing exciting really happens on the moon- and since he has some gold left over from their last mission, he heads on over to the Fantasy Costco and finds himself standing in front of their startlingly large yarn selection. 

The sort of lifestyle he was leading before now meant that things like needles and yarn were a superfluous luxury, too cumbersome to bother carrying around, so it's been a while since he's last knit. His first few attempts go poorly as he tries to remember where to put the yarn and how to do the stitches, it's a little pathetic, but after a fair amount of unraveling, he gets the hang of it once more. 

The first sweater that he makes is a rich red and far too big for someone Merle's size to actually wear. Someone like Magnus, however, is the perfect size. And Merle puts that to the side and starts working on something else. (Merle was there to hear Taako whine about his lack of gift after Magnus had made Merle his shelf, and Merle doesn't want to have to put up with that shit, no way, no how)

So Merle presents Magnus with his sweater at the same time he gifts Taako a lacy pastel shawl. 

Magnus wears the sweater with the unabashed glee of an over-exuberant dog, and Merle gets the sense that the human would have been just as happy with the oddly misshapen pieces that were Merle's first few attempts. He piles on the things that Merle knits for him, as many as he can at once, no matter how mild the temperature actually is. 

Taako, on the other hand, pesters Merle about colors and textures but treats every shawl and skirt with a soft sort of reverence and a bold amount of pride, making every article he wears the centerpiece of his outfits. 

And Merle won't lie; he likes that they like the things that he makes, and so he keeps making them.

But if anybody asks, he's just trying to find a way to pass the time. 


	3. Taako

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry folks, couldn't pass up the chance of getting this angst in there. please be warned that there is the _briefest_ allusion to an eating disorder, so please tread carefully if you need to!!

Taako has lost count of the number of meals that he's made and thrown away. 

He doesn't like wasting food, it makes him itch to even think about it, but in the face of a finished dish, anxiety rushes like water to drown him until the entire thing is disposed of in its entirety. No trace left. 

He keeps trying because he  _wants_ to give them this. This is what he's always given to the people around him, and Merle and Magnus have given  _him_ so much already -more than Taako has ever gotten before- and it feels  _wrong_ to not pay them back. 

But he just can't quite do it. 

And it isn't like cooking is  _all_ that Taako can do. He's a talented individual, with many skills, which he is good at. But cooking is just what he  _does_ for people. 

Well, it's what he  _did_ for people. 

Because standing at the stove, staring down at the half finished soup in the pot he  _can't fucking do it_. 

Frustrated, he throws the pot into the already overflowing sink, where it clatters loudly against the similarly dirty pots and pans already there, splashing soup all over the counter. Taako's relieved, not for the first time, that they were given private rooms. 

It wasn't even his fucking fault. 

All of this shit that he's been through for the past  _years_ ; the not eating, the not being able to cook, the anxiety and the guilt and the  _bullshit_. And it wasn't even his fucking fault. He supposes that he's kind of relieved to know it, but mostly he's just pissed off. This shouldn't be affecting him this badly  _still_ , not after all these years, not after this revelation. 

Taako growls to himself, scrounges up a pan that isn't dirty, and slams it onto the stove. 

He's going to keep trying until he's able to do this, and when he is able, he's going to give Magnus and Merle the best meal they've ever had in their  _lives_. 

At least, he really hopes that he is. 

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://www.princex-n.tumblr.com)


End file.
